Brad Gushue

Brad Gushue
Born	June 16, 1980 (1980-06-16) St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Team
Curling club	Bally Haly G&CC, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Skip	Brad Gushue
Third	Ryan Fry
Second	Geoff Walker
Lead	Adam Casey
Career
Brier appearances	8 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Top CCA ranking	4th (2008–09)
Grand Slam victories	1: The National (2010)

Medal record
Men's curling
Competitor for Canada
Winter Olympics
Gold	2006 Turin
World Junior Curling Championships
Gold	1998 Thunder Bay
Gold	2001 Ogden
Canadian Olympic Curling Trials
Gold	2005 Halifax
Tim Hortons Brier
Silver	2007 Hamilton
Bronze	2011 London

Bradley Raymond "Brad" Gushue, ONL (born June 16, 1980) is a Canadian curler from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador. Gushue, along with teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they won the gold medal by defeating Finland 10–4, including a dramatic 6-point sixth end in the final match (even though he missed a draw for 7-points), which was conceded after the 8-end minimum stipulated under Olympic rules.

Career

Gushue is a six-time (1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) provincial junior curling champion in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the last five as skip. In 2001, he not only won the provincial championship, but the national championship and world junior championships as well. Gushue was also the alternate for John Morris at the 1998 World Junior Championships which Morris won.

After his outstanding career as a junior, Gushue made an impressive transition into men's curling and his team quickly became a competitive force. Gushue qualified for the 2003 Nokia Brier where he finished with a 6–5 record. By the 2004 Nokia Brier, Gushue proved not only was he one of the best curlers in Newfoundland, but one of the best in Canada, when his team finished with an 8–4 record. The following year, Gushue qualified for the 2005 Tim Hortons Brier where his team once again finished 6–5.

In May 2005, Gushue brought in former world champion Russ Howard as fifth man on the team, in order to bring experience and advice for the Canadian Olympic trials. Shortly afterwards, second Mike Adam volunteered to step aside for Howard, as the team felt that Howard's skills and experience gave them the best chance to make it to the Olympics. Howard, playing as second, was given the right to call the team's shots as a skip would, but would defer to Gushue for the final word on calls. (Under international rules, Howard was nominally the skip, holding the broom in the house and sweeping opponents stones behind the tee line.) The personnel change was a success, as Gushue defeated Jeff Stoughton's team in the Olympic trials final on December 11, 2005, qualifying him to represent Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. At the Olympics, he defeated Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi in the finals to win the Gold medal.

With his teammates, Gushue became the first Newfoundlander ever to win an Olympic gold medal. Prior to the gold medal match, a provincial order allowed for the closure of all schools at noon on that day, one hour before local coverage of the event began. [1] [2]

In 2007, Gushue replaced Mike Adam with Chris Schille as second. A month following their runner-up finish at the 2007 Tim Hortons Brier in Hamilton, Gushue announced that Jamie Korab, longtime teammate, was also cut from the team. Despite a strong Brier appearance and season, Gushue said that the team seemed to lack a needed chemistry and that Korab's departure was a group decision. In 2008, David Noftall assumed the lead position but this did not prove to be a winning combination.

In April 2008, Gushue replaced his front-end for the sixth straight year: Jamie Korab rejoined the team as lead and Ryan Fry joined the team at second.

In April 2010, Randy Ferbey joins Brad Gushue's team holding the broom but throwing third rocks. Brad will continue to throw last rocks. Previous third, Mark Nichols will be bumped up to the second position and Ryan Fry will play lead. Jamie Korab has decided to take a year or two off. In their first event as a team, the rink lost to Thomas Lips in the final of the 2010 Baden Masters.

On February 9, 2011, Randy Ferbey announced that he was no longer curling with the Gushue team. He stated "I was done curling with them in Oshawa (The BDO Canadian Open Grand Slam Event).

For the 2011–12 season, Gushue put together a team of his current second, Ryan Fry, Geoff Walker of Alberta, and Adam Casey of PEI.

Brier Appearances

Brad Gushue made his first showing at the Brier (Canadian Men's National Championship) in 2003, and has continued to represent Newfoundland and Laborador each year since, except in 2006 when he was unable to participate due to being at the Olympics in Italy. In 2004, Brad Gushue was named the All Star skip at the Nokia Brier. His best record ever was at the 2007 Brier in Ontario, where he finished 8–3 and earned himself a spot in the "One vs. Two" playoff game, where he beat Ontario's Glenn Howard. His team advanced to the finals, where they would have a rematch with Howard, and this time would lose. At the 2008 Brier, Gushue's team failed to make the playoffs, losing a tie-breaker to British Columbia's Bob Ursel. During the 2011 Tim Horton's Brier event in London, The Gushue Rink won the first ever Brier Bronze Medal game, Defeating Kevin Martin (Alberta) 10-5.

Personal life

Brad Gushue is currently a business owner in St. John's, NL. Gushue married Krista Tibbo on September 8, 2006. [3] The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Hayley Sophia, on October 14, 2007. She weighed 6 lbs. 14.5 ozs. [4] In 2006, Gushue co-authored a book with Alex J. Walling titled Golden Gushue: a Curling Story, which offers a behind the scenes look at the rise of his team to Olympic gold

Grand Slam Record

Brad Gushue and his team has reached the championship match of a Grand Slam event only four times. The first was in 2005 when he finished second, after losing to Kevin Martin in the final game of Players' Championship. In 2010, he again made it to the finals at The National, facing Randy Ferbey. Gushue won the game, earning his first Grand Slam title of his career.

Key
C	Champion
F	Lost in Final
SF	Lost in Semifinal
QF	Lost in Quarterfinals
Q	Did not advance to playoffs
DNP	Did not participate in event

Event	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11
World Cup	Q	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	Q	Q	SF	SF	QF
The National	DNP	DNP	DNP	Q	QF	QF	Q	F	C	Q
Canadian Open	DNP	DNP	DNP	Q	Q	Q	Q	QF	Q	Q
Players'	DNP	Q	Q	F	Q	Q	Q	QF	F	-

Teams

Season	Skip	Third	Second	Lead
2002-03	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Jamie Korab	Mark Ward
2003-04	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Jamie Korab	Mark Ward
2004-05	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Keith Ryan	Jamie Korab
2005-06	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Mike Adam Russ Howard (skip)	Jamie Korab
2006-07	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Chris Schille	Jamie Korab
2007-08	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Chris Schille	David Noftall
2008-09	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Ryan Fry	Jamie Korab
2009-10	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Ryan Fry	Jamie Korab
2010-11*	Brad Gushue	Randy Ferbey (skip)	Mark Nichols	Ryan Fry
2011*	Brad Gushue	Mark Nichols	Ryan Fry	Jamie Danbrook
2011-12	Brad Gushue	Ryan Fry	Geoff Walker	Adam Casey

*Ferbey left team mid season

External links

• Team Gushue
• Golden Dream (Team Gushue fan site)
• Gushue rink takes Torino gold
• [5] Canadian Curling Association
• Brad Gushue on Real Champions
• World Curling Tour profile